About D2R Summoner Necromancer and How to Assign Your Skill Points as Summoner Necromancer Novice Players

TL;DR

  • Summoner Necromancer offers safe gameplay with skeleton armies requiring minimal gear investment
  • Early game focuses on Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery with balanced point distribution
  • Corpse Explosion becomes crucial for area clearing and damage scaling
  • Strategic curse usage and golem selection significantly impact survival and efficiency
  • Hell difficulty requires specific gear optimization and tactical adjustments for viability

The Necromancer class in Diablo 2 Resurrected has achieved remarkable popularity, rivaling even the Sorceress in player adoption. The summoner specialization stands out as an exceptionally beginner-friendly archetype that utilizes animated skeleton warriors to engage enemies while you direct the battle from a safe distance. This playstyle provides such reliable protection that you can comfortably manage your character while multitasking. We’ll explore the summoner necromancer’s core mechanics and provide a comprehensive skill point distribution guide tailored for new players.

 

About D2R Summoner Necromancer and How to Assign Your Skill Points as Summoner Necromancer Novice Players

 

Key Benefits for New Players

The summoner necromancer’s primary strength lies in its defensive capabilities through numerical superiority. Your skeleton army absorbs damage and controls enemy positioning, allowing you to cast supportive spells without direct engagement. This archetype demonstrates exceptional gear flexibility, functioning effectively even with basic equipment found during early gameplay. Unlike mana-intensive casters, the summoner focuses on strategic positioning and curse application rather than stat-dependent damage output.

Positioning your minions effectively creates natural choke points and controls enemy movement patterns. The class’s resource efficiency means you can allocate stat points primarily to vitality rather than energy, significantly improving survivability. For players seeking to optimize their early game experience, consulting our Class Guide provides additional strategic insights for character development.

 

Progression Challenges and Late-Game Considerations

The specialization encounters significant damage scaling issues in Hell difficulty without proper gear optimization. Basic weapons and lack of powerful Runewords result in substantially reduced clear speeds against tougher enemies. While excellent for completing the main storyline, this build faces limitations for endgame farming efficiency without specific item investments.

Many players encounter a common mistake: over-investing in skeleton quantity early without balancing their quality and supporting abilities. Strategic skill point distribution proves more valuable than maximizing any single skill immediately.

Core Combat Abilities

Raise Skeleton serves as your primary damage source, while Skeleton Mastery dramatically improves their durability and offensive capabilities. Corpse Explosion provides exceptional area clearing potential, and Amplify Damage significantly increases your army’s effectiveness against resistant enemies.

Auxiliary skills divide into offensive and defensive specializations. Attack-focused abilities include Golem Mastery, Clay Golem, and Decrepify for direct combat enhancement. Defensive utilities encompass Dim Vision, Confuse, and Summon Resist for survival improvement.

Prerequisite skills represent necessary investments to access your core toolkit rather than regularly used abilities. These gateway skills unlock advanced branches in the talent tree necessary for your core build functionality.

 

Advanced Skill Synergies

The Clay Golem’s slowing effect combines powerfully with Decrepify to virtually immobilize dangerous enemies. This combination proves particularly valuable against act bosses and unique monsters with high damage output.

While maximum investment in Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, Clay Golem, and Summon Resist represents the endgoal, the journey requires careful balancing. Avoid the common pitfall of completely maxing one skill before beginning another. For instance, don’t allocate all 20 points to Raise Skeleton before putting points into Clay Golem. Early skeletons possess substantially lower damage output compared to a properly supported Clay Golem, and excessive minion counts can create pathing issues in confined areas. Overcrowding actually diminishes your effective damage in early gameplay by blocking your own attacks and movement.

 

Reference the following progression table for optimal early game skill development:

Level

Skill Name

Skill Points

2

Raise Skeleton

+1

3

Raise Skeleton

+1

4

Raise Skeleton

+1

Amplify Damage

+1

5

Skeleton Mastery

+1

6

Clay Golem

+1

7

Raise Skeleton

+1

8

Raise Skeleton

+1

9

Raise Skeleton

+1

10

Raise Skeleton

+1

11

Raise Skeleton

+1

12

Raise Skeleton

+1

13

Raise Skeleton

+1

14

Raise Skeleton

+1

15

Raise Skeleton

+1

16

Teeth

+1

17

Corpse Explosion

+1

18

Raise Skeleton

+1

19

20

Raise Skeleton

+1

21

Golem Mastery

+1

22

23

Raise Skeleton

+1

24

Summon Resist

+1

Raise Skeleton

+1

25

26

Raise Skeleton

+1

27

28

29

Terror

+1

Decrepify

+1

Strategic Positioning and Crowd Control

Mastering minion placement transforms difficult encounters. Position your skeletons to create natural barriers while your Clay Golem engages high-priority targets. Utilize narrow corridors to maximize your numerical advantage while minimizing exposure to area-of-effect attacks.

The Corpse Explosion and Amplify Damage combination represents one of the most powerful area-clearing tactics available. This synergy allows you to convert enemy casualties into explosive chain reactions that clear entire screens of monsters when properly executed.

 

Gear Optimization and Progression Planning

While the build functions with basic equipment, certain items dramatically improve performance. +skills gear significantly boosts your minion effectiveness, while Runewords like ‘White’ in a wand provide substantial bonuses to your core abilities. For detailed weapon progression strategies, our Weapons Unlock guide offers complementary information for character development.

Advanced players should consider strategic mercenary selection, particularly Act 2 Desert Guards with Might aura or Act 1 Rogues with freezing arrows for additional crowd control.

Common mistakes include neglecting resistances in favor of pure damage or over-investing in too many different skill trees. Focus on maximizing your core summoning abilities before branching into secondary specializations.

Action Checklist

  • Start with Raise Skeleton at level 2, adding points consistently through early levels
  • Introduce Amplify Damage at level 4 to overcome physical immunities
  • Balance Skeleton Mastery investments starting at level 5 for improved minion durability
  • Add Clay Golem at level 6 for additional frontline presence and slowing utility
  • Unlock Corpse Explosion at level 17 for area clearing capability
  • Progress through prerequisite curses systematically to access Decrepify by level 29

No reproduction without permission:GameCDjnh » About D2R Summoner Necromancer and How to Assign Your Skill Points as Summoner Necromancer Novice Players Master the Summoner Necromancer build with expert skill point allocation and advanced strategies for D2R